January Seventh (Saturday Writing Essential)

Challenge: Use prose or poetry to write something (fiction, nonfiction, or essay) about the month of January. Go to  The History Place, pick one of the entries, and write about it.

One of the ideas I included was: Oh, if you can figure out why I said the seventh was a pretty important day and write something explaining that -- extra points! Soooo, I’m ignoring the History Place and writing about the seventh of January so I can get those extra points.

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Those of you who know me will realize that this is difficult for me to write. Not because of the content, but because I’m the guy who can’t use less than 10,000 words to tell a story and this one will be short. It’s meant to reinforce the thought that my people skills need some work.

January 7, 1973, was not a memorable day. But the day before...

I was stationed in San Francisco as a Marine recruiter and, for some reason, my wife planned a surprise birthday party for me. My birthday was on Sunday that year and our recruiting office had an official function that day so wife had my birthday party the day before.

Not expecting a party of any kind and knowing I had to work the following day, I might have had an extra beer or two that day before the doorbell rang and I was suddenly surrounded by fourteen Marines and their wives/girlfriends. It was a great time and, being the lord of the manor, I sat in my favorite recliner to receive their presents.

When I woke up, I told my wife about the strangest dream... and then noticed all the torn wrappings covering the floor. “Huh?”

She then told me how I fell asleep while I was opening a present and everyone else, being Marines and friends, continued to party while I sat in the chair snoring.

The only good thing is that there was no Internet that day or I’d be starring in a YouTube video to this day.

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SatWE Logo  (If you want to use it) courtesy of  our friend Ruthi.